By the time I turned back around, Alice was brandishing my Damascus-steel pocketknife, that ferocious red glare in her eyes.
‘I’m. Going. To. Kill. You.Bitch.’
Her voice was a low grind; hoarse and subhuman.
She dived at me, and I spun out of the way just in time, my hockey footwork drills finally coming in handy. I dodged her fierce lunges twice more until I’d danced my way over to my hockey stick bag. Wrenching a stick free from the front pocket, I stood with it like a sword.
I hoped this would deter her, but this monster was not Alice, was not capable of rational thought. She pounced, and as her knife arm raised high and her feet left the ground, I swallowed every ounce of humanity I had left and whipped the stick across her temples.
Hard.
She slumped to the ground, knife skittering away under my desk.
With a stifled sob, I dropped to my knees, holding two fingers to her throat to find her pulse.
It was still there, fast but steady. Shallow breaths leaked out of her.
Without looking back, I slid the key into the lock with shaking hands, opened the door and slammed it shut behind me, locking it from the outside.
What.
The.
Fuck.